The author has developed a functional model for some aspects of language behavior which attempts to link a number of experimental findings within a relatively simple framework. In this paper the author sets out to "axiomatise some features of the model" (which had its origins in an attempt to account for a range of phenomena concerned with word recognition and production). The model is also compared to Chomsky's "idealized competence model" ("The Formal Nature of Language" in Lenneberg, 1967). The two systems are forced to be compatible in several areas. The author concludes that "Chomsky's grammar, as an axiomatization, appears to be superordinate to both psychological and linguistic theories and in one sense is a link between them." The analysis begun in this paper will be expanded further in "Models for Language Behavior," Allen and Unwin, 1969. (JD)